1. Field
This application relates generally to communication and more specifically, but not exclusively, to managing transactions.
2. Introduction
A wireless communication network may be deployed over a defined geographical area to provide various types of services (e.g., voice, data, multimedia services, etc.) to users within that geographical area. In a typical implementation, access points (e.g., corresponding to different cells) are distributed throughout a network to provide wireless connectivity for access terminals (e.g., cell phones) that are operating within the geographical area served by the network.
When an application running on an access terminal wishes to access a network resource (e.g., to communicate with a server or another access terminal), session management procedures may be employed to establish or modify a bearer for this access. For example, the access terminal may initiate a transaction (e.g., send a message to the network) to cause a bearer to be activated or modified to support the desired access.
Since the access terminal may initiate many of these bearer transactions over time, the access terminal may assign different transaction identifiers to different transactions. The access terminal and the network may then include the appropriate transaction identifier in each message sent for a given transaction. In this way, the access terminal may identify the transaction that is associated with a given message received from the network. Then, when the transaction completes (e.g., upon acceptance of a network request by the access terminal), the access terminal may release (e.g., enable re-use of) the transaction identifier.
In some cases, in the event the network does not receive an expected response to a message (e.g., within a defined period of time), the network may retransmit the message. In the event the access terminal had responded to the message (e.g., accepted a network request), however, the retransmission may include a transaction identifier that the access terminal has already released. In such a case, the access terminal may reject the retransmission. A mismatch may then exist whereby the access terminal is proceeding as if a request has been accepted while the network is proceeding as if the request has been rejected. Thus, a need exists for effective techniques for managing such transactions to prevent these and other types of transaction mismatches.